With one year left on his current deal, Jordan Love has been “holding in” at Green Bay Packers training camp as the two sides hope to get a new contract done in the coming days.
Although Love has only one season of starting experience, he has already cemented himself as one of the league’s best young quarterbacks. Considering the landscape of the quarterback market and Love’s potential, he could reportedly become the NFL‘s highest-paid player.
How Much Money Could Jordan Love Earn on His Contract Extension?
Love, who’s played mostly on his rookie contract, is up for a new extension.
But it’s unlike any extended deal. Love and the Packers have a great chance of making new financial history together.
The QB market has changed significantly in recent years, and this offseason was no exception.
In June, Trevor Lawrence signed a five-year, $275 million extension with the Jacksonville Jaguars for an average annual salary of $55 million per year. Lawrence is now tied with Joe Burrow, who signed his extension just last offseason, for the largest average annual salary in NFL history.
MORE: Who Are the NFL’s Highest-Paid Quarterbacks?
Love and the Packers could be the next ones to cash in on the ever-growing QB market. Which could mean threatening Lawrence and Burrow’s statuses as the NFL’s richest QBs in that department.
After a rough 2-5 start last season, Love stayed the course and spearheaded a Green Bay playoff run behind his 32-touchdown regular season. Love also racked up 4,159 passing yards — which was more than what Rodgers (4,038 in 2008) and Favre (3,227 in 1992) delivered in their first seasons as the full-time starters.
Furthermore, Love emerged as one of the more efficient passers on first down — completing 71.2% of his throws during those scenarios according to TruMedia. He also nearly completed 60% of his passes during critical third-down scenarios (59.9%), also via the analytics site. Then in the playoffs, he won over Packer fans by shredding Green Bay’s long-time postseason rival, the Dallas Cowboys, with 272 yards and three touchdowns in the opening-round 48-32 romp.
The 2020 late first-round pick is currently on a one-year maximum $22.5 million extension. According to Spotrac, his current deal only allows him to reel in $10.5 million in base salary and comes with a void/unrestricted-free-agent tag for the 2025 offseason.
Love, though, showed he was beyond capable of leading the Packers moving forward with his epic starting debut. Perhaps Green Bay can one-up the Jaguars and hand Love a deal that tops Lawrence’s. But with $30 to $40 million in cap space to work with in the next two seasons per Over the Cap, the Packers may exercise caution in not trying to place themselves in a money bind by paying Love.
Furthermore, how do two prominent Packers feel about the direction Love is going in?
Why Packers Feel Comfortable Signing Love to Potentially Massive Contract
Head coach Matt LaFleur was a witness to Love’s dynamic on-field moments. But this dime on a third-and-16 against the Pittsburgh Steelers with the Packers down 10 showed the elite composure of Love.
DEEP BALL TO @JaydenReed5!
TOUCHDOWN! 🙌#GBvsPIT | #GoPackGo
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/A4OBQHhdXB
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) November 12, 2023
LaFleur admitted to Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports Tuesday that this particular throw showed Love was seeing the game more as a veteran and not as a novice young QB.
“Early on, you’re trying to protect him — protect everybody, quite frankly, not just him, but all the youth,” LaFleur told Epstein after practice wrapped up at Packers training camp. “We got a little too conservative. The mindset we always [say] around here with the coaches is, ‘Shoot or shoot.’ We started doing that, our guys were making plays and it obviously served us well down the stretch.”
MORE: Simulate the NFL Season With PFN’s Playoff Predictor
LaFleur began to modify the way he’s traditionally developed young QBs. He took a leap of faith in throwing high volumes of formation information and protection schematics at Love — and the result was a fast maturation process for the young signal-caller.
LaFleur wasn’t the only one with a front-row seat to Love’s rise. General manager Brian Gutekunst was another who told Epstein that he was thrilled with what he saw. And now, the GM is confident Love’s ’23 campaign was not by accident.
“We feel very, very confident that the success he had last year was no mistake,” Gutekunst told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday during practice. “He’s still got a lot of growth. There’s a lot in front of him, and that’s why we need him out here as soon as we can get him because there’s a lot of important things he needs to go through to get ready for this season. But I do think having that history with him gives us a lot of confidence where he’s going.”
And Love could be going towards resetting the QB market if the Packers pull off a blockbuster new deal ahead of the 2024 season. This could mean the league’s first $60 million-per-year passer (or richer) in this rapidly ascending QB market.
